Rob Weidner is a gimbal/Movi Pro camera operator based in Cape Town, South Africa who enjoys empowering others with his creativity and optimism. Aside from that, he can also make a mean pizza and is ready to travel the world with his kit.

Shoe Dog - Phil Knight

Phil Knight, Nike's founder and board chairman, comes to "Good Morning America" to share insights from his new book.

With the way that the world is getting smaller and smaller via the accessibility of the internet and readily available information, international business has become drastically easier than what it was like when Phil Knight started down the path that would eventually lead to the creation and success of Nike. With running a business that deals internationally on a day-to-day basis, Film Gear South Africa is constantly having to deal with similar issues that Knight had to encounter with supply chain, cash flow, and employee management.

At the same time, his passion for wanting to win at any cost is extremely inspiring and his willingness to go above and beyond, [even to the point of jumping on the next flight to Japan], is eye-opening. The way that he was able to gamify his business clearly shows how his mind works and taking the harsh reality that he was not going to be a successful professional athlete, but still stay within the sports industry clearly aligns his two passions perfectly.

I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars simply because it was a bit longer than I think it needed to be, but regardless when listening at 1.5x speed on Audible, no book is too large to handle :)

My Notes

Wanted to leave a mark on the world

Didn't want to lose

Wanted life to be: play

Ran track at Oregon but quit after at 24

What if there was a way to feel what an athlete feels all the time, without being an athlete?

Life is a game.

The world is run on crazy ideas

We run because stopping scares the hell out of us.

Part 1

1962 approach dad with the idea

Research paper about shoes at Stanford Biz school

Wanting to pitch a company in Japan

Walk the track before a big race, so a trip around the world might do the trick

Need fathers approval and cash to make that trip to Japan to launch a company

Father was publisher of Oregon journal

Just paid for U of Oregon and Stanford

Liked being admired by others

Fear of inner chaos

26 of 27 companies fail

Father called him Little Buck

A trip around the world would be the trick to not becoming his father

Grandma didn't approve of the trip

Front runners always work the hardest

Companion on the trip to Japan would be friend Carter

September 7, 1962, departure date drive to San Francisco

Went to a liquor store to buy $80 ticket to Hawaii

Hawaii

Selling encyclopedias door to door to make ends meet

Couldn't sell encyclopedias because so shy

Didn't make the high school baseball team taught a lesson. Grieved for two weeks but then mom suggested running track. Realized he could run fast.

Selling security systems for Cornfeld in Hawaii instead

Wasn't a good talker, but could speak the truth and work the numbers

Carter met a girl and wanted to stay in Hawaii

Japan

Father knew some people in Japan and met up with them when the hostel didn't work out

Zen declares that self is a mirage. A bold face lie. To study the self is to forget the self.

Victory is when we forget the self and the opponent and become two halves of one whole

Visited Tokyo stock exchange

Went to the Importer magazine which was run by two GIs in Japan. They loved Japan. Ran for 17 years.

Told them they liked the Tiger shoe.

Key to doing business with the Japanese

Don't be rude or the typical American

They don't react well to the hard sell. Soft negotiations work better.

Showed up at the wrong place for the Tiger meeting

The entire shoe factory was extremely efficient

Leaving the past in the past. The Japanese had just recently tried to kill his uncles, and now he was doing business with them

Scared to answer what company he represents, he remembered his safe place, his home back in Oregon where he had blue ribbons hung on the wall. That was the inspiration for Blue Ribbon Sports

Undercut Adidas in the USA

$50 money order for samples of the Libero shoe

China

Mass poverty in the streets

The man who moves a mountain is the one who begins to move small stones

You are remembered for the rules you break. McCarthur

Africa

Baboons would raid the tour buses

Europe

Without victory, there is no survival

In Greece studied gods.

Nike is the god of victory

Back home in Oregon

still no shoes

Mother thought Phil was more "worldly."

Still needing money, worked for an accounting firm

Told to get your CPA and MBA to keep a certain salary level no matter what job you get

Track Coach Bowerman

Always customized Knight's shoes and believed in him

Oregon's athletic facilities weren't amazing

Coach was god/general

He rigged his mailbox with explosives so the truck driver would hit it

Asked to be 50/50 partner in shoe company

First college coach to emphasize rest

Coached more sub 4-minute mile runners than anyone else

Steady pace for first two laps, fastest pace for lap 3, and triple that pace for the last lap

Parents

Asked father again for money and this time said no

Family first.

Made him repel from his bed thru the window to get ready for a fire

Mother was a track while

Bought the first pair from Phil when he needed the money

The 300 pairs of shoes came quickly this time

Quit accounting job and sold shoes to various runners, coaches, etc

Surprised at selling success.

Mail order success

People would come to the house to get fitted

Happiness can be dangerous. It dulls the senses.

Met up with a friend he used to run with who happened to be selling Adidas shoes and asked him to be a sales person for him and rejected.

Got ordered to stop selling the shoes by guys claiming to be the exclusive North American distributor of Tiger shoes

Flew back to Japan to talk to about the C&D letter

"Just be yourself."

The art of competing is forgetting

Met with a new salesperson as the existing one does work at Onitsuka

Got invited to come to meet head of Onitsuka, Morimoto

Got his area back for one year

Went climbing Mount Fuji and met a woman Sarah

Back home back in Portland

Sarah showed up at his house

She impressed the whole family

Sister became the first part-time employee of Blue Ribbon Shoes

Re offered Jeff Johnson the sales job, and he accepted

Johnson was extremely persistent about writing to Phil

He ended up quitting his day job as a social worker

1965 Johnson became a first full-time employee of Blue Ribbon

Bank

Getting difficulties with bank and too much growth

Didn't have enough equity for the growth

The bank account was always close to zero. He would get a loan, make purchase, pay back loan, double order, do it all over again

At that time, the only real way to get money was going to bank

CPA

Started working for PWC

Learned how companies tick and fail.

Lack of equity is key to failure

Worked with accountant named Hayes who turned numbers into an art

Overweight and unhealthy

one night a week

Bowerman

Bowerman goes to Japan and becomes good friends with Onitsuka people

Used his runners as tests

Got experimental prototypes for his team

Tried to make secret drinks -> Gatorade

Tried to make rubbery running surface -> polyurethane

Wanted to write a book about running

"Business is a war without bullets."

Johnson created a custom insole for a runner to do the Boston marathon, and it is now standard on all track shoes

Business and personal Moved out of the house

Johnson got in a bad car accident on his way to a track meet and got a divorce. Needed to know what the long-term plan was for blue ribbon

Fail fast!

Told Johnson to open the retail shop, and to get an accountant but he didn't need to because he wasn't making huge gross profit

Opened the first store in Santa Monica

Created beautiful space for runners to hang out

Shop = "Sanctuary for runners"

Johnson convinced Knight to visit the shop

Marlboro man was back on shoe game

Needed a sense of community, even if it was a community of 2

Japan

Went to Japan again and there was a new export manager, Kitami

New and improved Onitsuka office

Kitami didn't have much "equity" in the shoes, so Knight was sitting well

Got exclusive three-year agreement for all of the USA

Opening of east coast store

Johnson Went to Boston to open shop

Johnson delivered an ultimatum for a partnership with the company -> fuck him!

Went to meet with Johnson and his father and told them partnership wasn't possible.

Knight didn't have anything to give, so offered a $50 raise

Johnson didn't want to quit, so he agreed to new terms

PwC 1967

Wanted to quit, but couldn't justify paying himself a salary from Blue Ribbon

Quit, and Started teaching accounting

Penelope Parks was a beautiful student in his class. Shy but smart.

"Assets = liabilities + equity" must always be in Balance

Offered Penelope a job because of her hand writing and whits

She quickly did everything she was asked to do

Wanted to be a part of it

She never cashed a paycheck, And neither did well

Went to visit her parents

Went on many dates

2x shy ppl worked well with each other

Came home to Portland

Struggled to get along with her family

They agreed to get married after another trip to Japan

He had a life partner now And didn't like saying goodbye to her

He was in harmony when he was balancing teamwork and alone time

Had teams in Japan and USA

Met up with a salesman who had just lost his house to a tsunami and wanted a new bicycle. Knight sent $50 to Onitsuka for a salesman, and it was returned but stated if he sent to house he could keep the money and knight did. The new partnership was born.

1969 <$300,000 in sales

Rising sales led to new sales people

Before 31st birthday, he was able to pay himself a salary. Quit teaching.

Advertising was the future

Offered a student a graphic design job

Olympics

No one was competing in Tiger shoes

They didn't have any money to pay athletes to wear their shoes

Spy at Onitsuka

He told his employees that he had a spy in the export department

Very common Japanese business practice to have spy in other companies

After Olympics, they came up to visit the HQ

Difficulties at home/Penny

Penny was learning that Phil was helpless around the house because he was spoiled rotten at home

Knight didn't like to loose because of his engrained upbringing

Penny managed to do well one a shoe string budget

Spring 1969 Penny is pregnant

Life is growth. You grow, or you die.

Found a house to purchase For $34,000 and got a loan for the house and put the company as down payment.

Every sale counted!

Found pleasure in small tasks

Office hunting

Their success was so dependent upon the spirit and working next to an insurance company wouldn't help that.

Corporate vibe could help with the bank and appear more professional

Waddell was to become head of operations

Chapter 10 fulfilment issues

Onitsuka was fulfilling all local orders first and then the exports.

As a result, shipments were late, incorrect, and ultimately embarrassing

Chapter 14 The Lawsuit

Blue Ribbon wins lawsuit

$400,000 loss granted.

Attorney Strausser became first in-house consul for blue ribbon

Yen became unstable

Considered taking production elsewhere

Company was actually in dire financial state

Jimmy conners tennis player. Sponsored athlete

Win Wimbledon and us open

Agent refused deal

1975 pay Nisho first. Financial issues

Growing faster than typical growth company

Grow or die

Always pushing bankers to the brink

Ran up $1mil in debt with Nisho

Have to clean out all other accounts to pay

Need payments from large retailers

Just need to get through this payment, then cash flow would be fine

You are remembered for the rules you break

Pay checks had bounced to employees

Approached suppliers for loans because without blue ribbon other companies would go out of business

Bank froze their accounts

Companies and banks live on float

Tried to convince Nisho that to pay them their $1mil they needed to pay their creditors and borrow and additional $1mil to pay them their $1 mil

FBI got involved with the bankruptcy and potential fraud charges

They couldn't take the house, but everything else

Always had answers to things, but not this time

As a result of the cash flow problems, creditors seeking their money turned into creditors seeking out the people that owed blue ribbon

Some of those companies paid out, and some were also in financial problems

Nisho wasn't that worried about the money. Sumaraki hid invoices because he liked Nike

Nisho offered to pay off all debts to creditors/banks

Part 2 1975

Still no banks

Got a bank in Minnesota to give $1mil in credit

Campbell. President of the bank of California. Called and told that Preet athlete was dead via car accident

Sony was the role model company

Didn't want ever to go public but needed more money

Bowerman wanted out

Started making the waffle trainer in blue and it was a huge success

Changed the name to Nike

Had to turn to Tawain to increase production

The best way to reinforce your knowledge of a subject is to share it

Korea and Taiwan are best shoe manufacturers

Going public was the best way to sustain growth

Trusting employees worked two ways by empowering them and liked the culture. Two-way loyalty.

Management style wouldn't have worked for people who wanted to be constantly guided.

Let employees make their own mistakes which is how Phil liked things

"Buttface" turned into nickname for all the extremely loyal employees

Matthew (son) never understood and was resented to Phil

1977 Frank Rudy

Figured out a way to inject air into running shoe

Shoe technology and design hadn't changed much since they were invented, so introducing air shoes seemed ridiculous

Strausser was originally hired for his legal mind, but soon did he realize his true talent was negotiating

Honest tactic

Sign college basketball coaches

Got a ton of coaches on board

Did the same with football coaches

Press release Iona was misprinted as Iowa

Got Nikes into Hollywood films and TVs

"Imitation is flattery but knock off is theft. "

Threatened the knock off factories with lawsuits, unless they wanted to help with producing more Nikes

A product speaks for itself, or it doesn't. Marketing doesn't mean a thing.

Must go public to solve the cash flow problem

Bill for $25mill for customs duties owed

American selling price law. If there are competitions that sell locally, 20% duties applicable for importing

Fortune favours the brave. Bought new house.

Sons didn't want anything to do with Nike

1978 Strausser's battle

The tailwind Don't try and put too many inventions into one shoe

1980 meeting with Chang to do Chinese production

Became An embassy to china

Tried to turn American selling price on their side to use as the new import standard

Filed anti-trust against competitors

Didn't want to settle at all

Issue two classes of stock

Way to keep control by selling single voting shares in one class, and board member shares to others

Settled on $9mil to customs

Chinese strip down on the train to stay cool

China gov negotiated all sponsorship deals

Chinese Olympic team wore American shoes

First American shoemaker in 25 years to do biz in china

Biz = helping others better their lives

Public offerings don't always succeed

Create a prospectus

Phil Knight personally own 46% of shares to ensure there was one person in charge

The cowards never started, and the weak died along the way.

Hayes sometimes drank too much

Wanted $22/share and so was Apple at the time

Offered $21.50 and insisted on $22/share

2007 Nike today

No longer CEO, but chairman

HQ is situated on a college campus

All phone numbers end in 6453 around the world, which spells Nike

Taking a chance on people, that's what it's all about

Athletes all love Phil

Matthew, the son, dropped out of college and started working with a charity in El Salvador. Went deep diving at 150ft and passed away

You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you

Bowerman went to work for Adidas

Nike is the world standard for factories

The Girl Effect organization

Tried to raise wages but national governments didn't agree

International trade always benefits both countries

Business is war without business

Although students are smarter these days, they tend to be more pessimistic